Author Archives: amol

About amol

Founder, builder, philosopher.

Icahn on takeovers, as a way of understanding what Elon is doing at Twitter

From the famous 2009 edition of Robert Schiller’s class at Yale that they recorded and published, a guest appearance by Carl Icahn — https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/financial-markets-audio/id341651121?i=1000063752219 Hear the corporate raider playbook – fire the “nice guy” CEO, slash headcount massively as most

Icahn on takeovers, as a way of understanding what Elon is doing at Twitter

From the famous 2009 edition of Robert Schiller’s class at Yale that they recorded and published, a guest appearance by Carl Icahn — https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/financial-markets-audio/id341651121?i=1000063752219 Hear the corporate raider playbook – fire the “nice guy” CEO, slash headcount massively as most

Why investors allocate to venture instead of hedge funds over virtually everything else…

The key stat is around minute 40. But don’t forget the other huge criterion: diversification. In the Swensen “Yale system”, the Buffet idea of “just own the index”, seems not at all what made Yale succeed. Here is a summary

Why investors allocate to venture instead of hedge funds over virtually everything else…

The key stat is around minute 40. But don’t forget the other huge criterion: diversification. In the Swensen “Yale system”, the Buffet idea of “just own the index”, seems not at all what made Yale succeed. Here is a summary

Behavior change and climate change

Every writer on climate change used to mention Jimmy Carter, the malaise speech, the American nationalism about suburbs and hamburgers, the entitled consumer, and ‘behavior change is hard to do’ topics on climate. In fact, even this August, the excellent

Behavior change and climate change

Every writer on climate change used to mention Jimmy Carter, the malaise speech, the American nationalism about suburbs and hamburgers, the entitled consumer, and ‘behavior change is hard to do’ topics on climate. In fact, even this August, the excellent

Tenant farmer's tombstone, Strathbrock

RIP Good Times Is Over*

*Who knows? I really don’t. But over dinner with a public markets hedge fund person, we both *felt* that the great crash of 2022 might be over now, and that another 6-12 months from now we may see new highs.

Tenant farmer's tombstone, Strathbrock

RIP Good Times Is Over*

*Who knows? I really don’t. But over dinner with a public markets hedge fund person, we both *felt* that the great crash of 2022 might be over now, and that another 6-12 months from now we may see new highs.

Rocky Mountains From Orbit

If you care about the future of humanity

Philosophers occasionally have breakthroughs — really! You probably don’t believe me. But they do — for example late in the 1800s some philosophy professors started trying to turn philosophy into mathematical statements, came up with logic, and that’s why computers

Rocky Mountains From Orbit

If you care about the future of humanity

Philosophers occasionally have breakthroughs — really! You probably don’t believe me. But they do — for example late in the 1800s some philosophy professors started trying to turn philosophy into mathematical statements, came up with logic, and that’s why computers

Favorite newsletters

Since we are in the newsletter boom again, now that RSS has died and sensible people stopped expecting curation on Twitter…here are my favorite newsletters (most of which I just got *added* to at some point by their authors, and

Favorite newsletters

Since we are in the newsletter boom again, now that RSS has died and sensible people stopped expecting curation on Twitter…here are my favorite newsletters (most of which I just got *added* to at some point by their authors, and

No fear of global warming here...

The Green New Deal for buildings is so simple

2019 feels like a very long time ago, but it is actually 10 years after the term “green new deal” started getting used in Europe, and a little after American politicians started using it. So Jeremy Rifkin didn’t beat everyone

No fear of global warming here...

The Green New Deal for buildings is so simple

2019 feels like a very long time ago, but it is actually 10 years after the term “green new deal” started getting used in Europe, and a little after American politicians started using it. So Jeremy Rifkin didn’t beat everyone

assorted silver colored pocket watch lot selective focus photo

Finding good ideas

The classic post by Paul Graham, “How to Get Startup Ideas“, is one I teach in my class at Columbia class on startups, and stands for one of the schools of thought on good ideas: bottom-up. The other one is

assorted silver colored pocket watch lot selective focus photo

Finding good ideas

The classic post by Paul Graham, “How to Get Startup Ideas“, is one I teach in my class at Columbia class on startups, and stands for one of the schools of thought on good ideas: bottom-up. The other one is